Moton charter school is in trouble again for failing to serve its special-ed students

For the second time in a year, the Orleans Parish School Board has warned Robert Russa Moton Charter School that it has failed to identify students with disabilities and provide them with the extra help required by law.

The state requires all students suspected of having a disability to be identified and evaluated. In a traditional school district, the central office handles this. It falls to charter schools if they’re outside a traditional school district.

Schools have 60 days to evaluate a student after a parent gives permission or requests an evaluation. They can be expensive, along with the additional services that may be called for. A personal aide, for example, adds a new salary to a school’s budget.

Moton’s special-education population has been well below the district’s average.

Moton’s continued problems with special-ed students

In some cases, the school did not identify students with disabilities, develop special-education plans, or keep students with disabilities in class when appropriate.

Tiffanye McCoy-Thomas, the district’s director of Exceptional Child Services, wrote that one of her employees identified six instances in which Moton had improperly handled students with disabilities.

The documents don’t say exactly how many students were affected, although one cites problems with five students. Moton, located in eastern New Orleans, has about 380 students.

Schools conduct brief special-ed screenings for all their students, and they’re supposed to take note of behavioral, academic and other issues that could point to a disability of some kind.

The documents don’t say exactly how many students were affected, although one cites problems with five students.One student with academic and behavioral problems wasn’t included in screening data, the district said.

The school fell short when it didn’t provide “tiered Intervention” to one student with academic and behavioral concerns, according to the school district. That term describes steps that can be taken with students who may have disabilities. Those steps can be taken outside formal special education.

Another student apparently received testing accommodations, but the school couldn’t provide paperwork to show what services it had provided.

Two students should have received special-education assistance but didn’t get it.

And the school suspended another student without providing a parent with the required documentation. The suspension was later reversed.

In one instance, Bruno wrote, the school had talked to the parent about special ed and was waiting for permission to move forward.

Bruno wrote that she planned to add more certified staff and has hired a consultant “with special education administrative experience to monitor and guide all related issues and ensure that we are in full compliance with State and Policy going forward.”

Bruno did not respond to a request for comment.If the school doesn’t meet the deadlines to fix the problems, it could lose its charter.

Moton’s new corrective action plan is eight pages long. Its assignments include appointing a special education coordinator and sending the school district any letters in which a parent declined a special-ed evaluation.

A team of Moton staff must attend training provided by the district on Friday, and they must pass a test on the material.

The district’s executive director of School Performance, Dina Hasiotis, warned Bruno the school must meet the deadlines outlined in the plan.

Failure to act, she wrote, may lead to “revocation of your charter contract with OPSB.”

The district did not respond to a request for comment, saying it would generally respond to media inquiries in two to four days.

Past problems at Moton

In 2012, the local school board concluded Moton staff had given students an edge on state tests. But more than a year later, the district retracted its findings, citing a lack of evidence.

The state warned Moton that in 2015 it had enrolled a below-average share of poor students. Charter school populations are supposed to reflect the local school district’s.

Bruno has also been accused of violating the state’s nepotism law for employing two daughters-in-law. The Louisiana Board of Ethics formally charged her in 2012. Five years later, the case is unresolved.

Marta Jewson covers education in New Orleans for The Lens. She began her reporting career covering charter schools for The Lens and helped found the hyperlocal news site Mid-City Messenger. Jewson returned to New Orleans in the fall of 2014 after covering education for the St. Cloud Times in Minnesota. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with majors in journalism and social welfare and a concentration in educational policy studies.